How a Green would fix your mess

Yes, your mess. We didn't make it, you never elect us, you never even pay attention to us. You crapped on the floor, and now you're bickering about the best way to fix it. Not only are you fighting each other, you're fighting yourselves! Normal Democrats are mad at "Blue Dog" Democrats, Ohio Republicans are mad at Southern Republicans. You aren't getting anything done, the crap is still on the rug and if you don't clean it up soon you're going to need a Rug Doctor, and we're fresh out of cash to afford one because they're really expensive.

But, listen, I can fix it! I have ideas, big ones!

First thing I'd do is the most obvious one of all, legalize marijuana. It's shocking that it's illegal in the first place, let alone in 2009. The legalization and subsequent taxation of marijuana would be a cash cow for the cash strapped government. I could go into the medical benefits that marijuana has, but I've already done that. They're well stated, regardless of what the drug czar says, I have it on good authority that he's an idiot. The legalization of marijuana would also mean that restrictions on it's sister plant, hemp, would be lifted. Hemp can make all sorts of cool things, you can even eat hemp seeds and they're really good for you. Hemp can also be converted to ethanol which serves two goods: first is that it frees up corn to become exclusively a food source once again, and second is that it's rapid growth rate would help loosen imported oil's death grip on our economy. Of course, the oil and pharmaceutical industries would be none-too-pleased with this which is why we would have to outlaw corporate lobbying.

But that's not all! Call now and we'll outfit every municipal, county, state and federal building with green power systems and save tax payers a bundle by dramatically cutting the power bills for those buildings! Yes, that includes the sports venues that billionaires held cities and states over a barrel to build, those would get the same treatment and the associated sports owners wouldn't see a dime of revenue from it. Take this for instance, that's the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, a municipally constructed venue in the heart of Charlotte with a bare concrete roof. Do you not see the potential there? Next to the arena is the CATS bus hub, it would also be outfitted with them.

Recently Peter Gorman, he's the head of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a failed educational organization in Charlotte, fired a bunch of teachers and announced that he may have to cut middle school sports. If you put self-reliant energy systems in the schools you could save a ton of money.

Of course, making marijuana legal would free up a lot of room in the prison system which would give us the ability to shut some prisons down and save even more money.

What would we do with all this money? Well, we'd have universal healthcare and bridges that don't fall apart.

It'd be nice, but you won't listen to us.

¡Hola, Mun2!

Since my OleOle blog post isn't showing up....

Well, maybe I should say "Hi there, Mun2!", considering that Mun2 usually broadcasts in English.

(Note to self: Watch the Chicas project)

Why am I writing about Mun2? Well, if you're asking that than you obviously aren't aware of the situation concerning the Mexico v United States World Cup Qualifying match on August 12th.

Usually US National Team matches are broadcast on ESPN2 (or sometimes they feel generous and put them on ESPN), at the very least ESPN Classic. But that isn't the case for this match, and that isn't the fault of ESPN actually. Since Mexico is the home team the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (or FEMEXFUT, which is equally a mouthful) controls who owns the rights to broadcast the match and they have a deal with NBC Universal through Telemundo for both rights -- Spanish AND English. This is where it get interesting.

Supposedly NBC outbid Disney (ABC & ESPN) for the World Cup but the USSF had a word with FIFA about how ESPN supports MLS and therefore deserves the rights to the World Cup more than NBC. Needless to say, NBC wasn't, and isn't, happy about this. The rumor is that ESPN approached NBC about buying the English rights so they could show the match, which is expected to be in high demand given the ferocity of the rivalry and the Americans recent Confederations Cup success, NBC said "How about naw?", or something like that.

So, instead of the match being broadcast in English on ESPN it will be broadcast in English on Mun2, Telemundo's baby sister, and I do mean "baby" - Mun2 is in 30 million US homes. Telemundo has yet to decide who will call the match for Mun2.

This has caused a fair bit of controversy in American soccer circles, obviously. Hardly anyone gets Mun2 (though many get Telemundo, who will broadcast the Spanish feed). There's even a petition (linked) to get the match moved to one of NBC's seven-gazillion other networks, namely the USA Network.

People have a right to be angry, but you can't exactly fault NBC. If the World Cup rumors are true they really got screwed. Plus they obviously want people to be more aware of Mun2's existence, it doesn't seem like a bad channel to be honest. It's kind of like MTV.

If you've gotten this far, I love you. Mun2 is on Dish Network 838 and DirecTV 410, I believe the latter requires a subscription to a Spanish language package.

In other news, the doctor says I have bronchitis. Ick.

USA v Brazil, the media, and ESPN v Univision

I write about soccer in another blog, but I don't do it much here. You can see my thoughts on the on field happenings of the FIFA Confederations Cup final there. I'm extremely proud of our players, but puzzled by our manager's tactics. It was a heartbreaking loss.

Being in a final, even a Confederations Cup final, is a big deal, and as such it has brought a lot of attention to the national team both positive and negative. International sports outside of the Olympics are often met with derision by the American mainstream media for some reason (though the general American populace seems to enjoy them greatly), I don't know why. One writer once said he thought that the US should pull out of the Olympics and just have an American Olympics (sidenote: We already have something similar, that took 30 seconds of research) because "we always win anyway", apparently China didn't get the memo. That struck me as xenophobic. He's a rather well known writer, he's even featured on television for some reason. I guess because controversy creates cash and if you yell out the most outrageous things someone will argue with you. By now I've learned to ignore the detractors.

There has been positive attention as well, and that's been very nice. If that was your first non-World Cup soccer experience, the national team plays several matches every year, often all through out the country, if you're interested you'd be more than welcome at any of them. The Gold Cup starts on July 3rd, click the link and you can see if any matches are near you. The Gold Cup is our regional championship, think of it as a World Cup with only North American teams (CONCACAF is North America, Central America and the Caribbean including Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana). It's fun and you may meet some good people at the same time.

I have to say though, ESPN has disappointed me again. I speak very little Spanish but I often find myself watching the Univision feed for matches. ESPN's feed often seems to lack the passion associated with the sport and I guess that rubs me the wrong way. Yes, the GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL can be over-the-top at times but if you watch the entire feed you can honestly see how passionate the commentary team on Univision is. I know there's a massive controversy over English and Spanish in the United States but Univision (Miami, FL-based) is as American as ESPN (Bristol, CT-based) and seemed more proud of that fact during the Confederations Cup. I'm thankful ESPN showed the competition (but if they hadn't, FSC would've and Max Bretos is very passionate about the game and the US team) but I wish they'd try a little harder, it'd be nice.

Now my stomach hurts, I shouldn't eat red meat. I must turn in, again.

Becky Hammon is not the devil

She isn't.

The flack Becky Hammon has received for playing basketball at the Olympics as a Russian is shocking, disgusting, and incredibly trashy.

Becky Hammon is a highly respected basketball player, she is rated as one of the top guards in the world. More importantly, by all accounts she's a sweet, engaging woman who would never wish harm on anyone. Becky has played in the WNBA for 10-seasons and has never once been approached by the US Women's national basketball team to play a game, not even during minor events such as the Pan-American games. Becky's talent was ignored until she applied for Russian citizenship.

During the offseason Hammon suppliments her rather paltry WNBA salary by playing professionally in Russia for CSKA Moscow, recently Becky signed a $2-million contract with Moscow multi-sport outfit after receiving her Russian passport. This led many self-styled defenders of all things American to label Becky a "whore" who "sold herself" to Russia. Becky did not sell herself to Russia, Becky applied for Russian citizenship to help her club CSKA. In Russia teams are limited by the amount of foreign players they can field, by getting a Russian passport Becky has freed up a "non-Russian" spot on her team's roster, allowing them to bring in another foreign player. Becky did not sell herself to the Russian basketball federation. Becky is not a whore.

One thing the heat Becky has taken for daring to pursue her Olympic dream has led me to ask is where was this heat when Mike Piazza represented Italy at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, or the 2006 World Baseball Classic? If a Pennsylvanian can play for Italy then a South Dakotan can play for Russia. I don't care where Piazza's Grandparents come from, he's as American as Becky Hammon, if Becky is a traitor than so is Piazza. If Becky is a traitor than so are the eighteen American's who represented Greece's baseball team in 2004 (Greece's only baseball stadium has since been converted for soccer use for anyone wondering why baseball won't feature in London 2012).

Moreover, why are we allowed to import athletes but Russia isn't? There's a very famous former American international male basketball player who plays professionally in the same city as Hammon, but his country has their own basketball team.

Hmmm.

"God loves Russia just as much as God loves America.", you couldn't be more right, Becky. God loves everyone, but he doesn't like hatefulness. Think about that.